Chinese firm reveals new device to challenge Apple

24/07/2014

It may be a brand that is relatively unknown outside of its own country, but one of China's premier smartphone developers has now announced that it is set to release a phone that will be able to challenge the dominance seen in recent times by the likes of Apple and Samsung.

Xiaomi will be a name that is pretty alien to most of us in the UK, but it is essentially China's answer to Apple, being one of the real powerhouses of smartphone development in the nation and with a really passionate following behind it.

And it has now announced that it is releasing the Xiaomi Mi 4, which it is calling the fastest smartphone in the world. With a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor and 3GB of RAM, it's not hard to see why the company thinks it may be on to a real winner - the hardware is better than the 2.3GHz quad-core 801 chip and 3GB of RAM found inside the Sony Xperia Z2, which is arguably the most powerful available at the moment.

Xiaomi has also claimed that the phone has a better screen than any Apple device that is currently available. It said in its press release that the screen on the Mi 4 offers 17 per cent higher resolution than that of the iPhone 5S, even though it comes in at a lower price point.

In terms of price, the phone comes in two variants - a 16GB and a 64GB version - with these costing a rather impressive £190 and £340 respectively.

So why does Xiaomi target Apple so much in its marketing with claims that its device can outstrip anything the Cupertino firm has to offer?

The simple truth is that it emulates the iPhone's design in many ways, incorporating a similar sort of sleek design as the popular handset. As well as a similar shape, the phone also has the same type of steel band around it as the Apple device carries.

And will we see it in the UK? Apparently it's a possibility. While Xiaomi has previously not been one for reaching out to other markets, bloggers believe that it is looking to do precisely this moving forward.